Category: Interaction Design

After defining the complex architecture and data flows in my previous posts, it was time to shift focus from the backend logic to the user’s reality. I needed to answer the most important question: What will this experience actually look and feellike for Alex, our shopper? This is where the design process begins. It’s a journey of translating abstract ideas into tangible, interactive screens. For this project, I followed a three-stage methodology, moving from low-commitment sketches to a fully realized high-fidelity vision.

Stage 1: The Spark of an Idea – Paper Wireframes Every complex digital product begins with the simplest of tools: a pen and paper. Before getting down to pixels and software, I sketched out the core user flow. This stage is all about speed and ideation—capturing the main steps of the journey without worrying about details.As you can see from my initial drawings, I focused on the key moments: entering the store, viewing a product, and the “wow” moment of 3D visualization in the user’s own home. This raw format allowed me to establish the foundational structure of the application.

Stage 2: Building the Blueprint – Low-Fidelity (Lo-Fi) Digital Wireframes With the basic flow mapped out, the next step was to give it a more formal structure. I created low-fidelity digital wireframes. The goal here is not beauty; it’s clarity. By using simple grayscale boxes, placeholder images, and basic text, I could focus entirely on information hierarchy and layout. These Lo-Fi designs helped me answer critical questions: Where should the search bar go ? How should a product’s details be organized? What does the checkout process look like? At this stage, I focused on a mobile form factor to solidify the core components in a familiar layout before adapting them for a more complex AR view.

Stage 3: Bringing the Vision to Life – High-Fidelity (Hi-Fi) AR Mockups This is the leap from a 2D blueprint into a 3D, immersive world. Designing for Augmented Reality, especially for the main target of smart glasses, required a complete shift in thinking. The user interface can’t just be a flat screen; it needs to live within the user’s space, providing information without obstructing their view.Here are some of the key design principles I implemented in the high-fidelity mockups:

Spatial & Contextual UI: The interface appears as a series of floating panels, or “holograms.” A navigation prompt appears at the top left, while the main interactive panel is on the right, keeping the central field of view clear. This UI is also contextual—it changes based on what the user is doing, whether they are navigating, inspecting an item, or making a purchase.

• An End-to-End Flow: From Browse the wishlist to making a secure payment with Apple Pay and seeing the order status, the entire purchase journey is designed to be fluid and intuitive, requiring minimal interaction from the user this. This actually concludes my idea of the technology us human moving from interacting with the objects by typing or other means now we have our devices to do so.

This iterative journey from a simple sketch to a polished AR interface was crucial for refining the concept and ensuring the final design is not only beautiful but also intuitive and genuinely useful.

With the architecture defined and the user interface designed, the final step is to merge them. In my next post, I’ll discuss the technical prototyping process—bringing these designs to life with code and seeing them work on a real device.

In today’s “always on” design culture, productivity is king. We strive to fill every moment. Jam-packed sprints, brainstorming marathons, synchronous ideation sessions. If you don’t grind, you’re behind.
But what if this relentless pace is not fueling creativity, but smothering it?

Hustle Culture: a Creativity Crisis

Hustle Culture thrives on the belief that relentless striving equals success. In this mindset, being busy comes a virtue. But some research shows that this might be backfiring.
For instance, a Deloitte report (215) found that 77% of employees had experiences burnout at their current job. And research in cognititve psychology shows that chronic stress impairs key cognitive functions such as memory, decision-making, and creative thinking (McEwen & Sapoisky, 1995). Under pressure, the brain reverts to routine and risk-averse solutions. recisely the opposite of what creative work demands.

There is an apparent paradox at play: the harder we push for ideas, the less room we give them to surface.

Even in innovation-heavy workplaces, this reality is sinking in. Google’s “Search Inside Yourself” program incorporates mindfulness and reflection breaks into employee schedules. Arianna Huffington, who famously collapsed from exhaustion, founded and entire platform, Thrive Global, to advocate for well-being and balance. Why? Because rest isn’t the enemy of creativity. It’s often the source of it.

Creativity isn’t Constant. It Has a Rhythm

Creative output doesn’t follow a linear or constant trajectory. One well-supported theory in psychology is that creativity emerges from the interplay between focus and defocus, the so-called “dual-process model” of creative cognition (Sowden, Pringle, & Gabora, 2015).

Neuroscientist Marcus Raichle and colleagues discovered that the brain’s default mode network, which is active during idle moments, plays a significant role in ideation and problem-solving (Raichle et al., 2011). In other words: the brain doesn’t shut down during downtime. It reconfigures.

This is echoed by the classic four-stage model of creativity proposed by Wallas (1926):
1. Preparation: Immersion in the problem
2. Incubation: Stepping back or taking a break
3. Illumination: Sudden insight or “aha!” moment
4. Verification: refining and testing the idea
That quiet moment during a walk, in the shower, or while zoning out can become the birthplace of powerful ideas. It’s not laziness, it’s neurological efficiency.

Alternating Creative Current

IF we accept that the creative sweet spot lies in the tension between focus and reflection, how can we implement it into a design process?

1. Alternate Focus and Pause
   Pretty simple, yet important to mention because often overlooked: incorporate regular 10-15minute low stimulation breaks. Not for scrolling but for the mind to rest.
2. Ritualize Rest
   Normalize quiet moments. A “blank block” at the beginning of a meeting could prime the brain for originality, not just efficiency
3. Mindful Transitions
   Deliberate shifts away from focus (by journaling, walking, breathing exercises, or similar) could help move from convergent to divergent thinking.

No matter how it will be implemented in the final design, we need to rethink what “productive time” looks like. The pause is not a distraction from the creative process but a necessary part of it. And it needs reiteration.

Is Busyness a Creative Delusion?

In my opinion, one of the most harmful assumptions in contemporary creative culture is that busyness equals progress. Corporate Design Agencies over-schedule, over-plan, and over-communicate, mistaking motion for meaning. But the cognitive processes on which creative thinking rests (associative processing, divergent thinking, insight, etc.) require something that busyness inherently denies: mental slack.

I already mentioned this in a previous blog post but I think it relevant to repeat that according to research by Baird et al. (2012), participants who were denied a chance to daydream were significantly outperformed by participants who did when it comes to creative problem-solving-challenges. The authors of that study concluded that mind wandering facilitates creative incubation, especially when daydreaming was done during a cognitively light task like washing dishes or copying a text.

This aligns with psychologist Mihaly Cyikszentmihalyi’s concept of psychic entropy, which posits that our minds need time to meander to restructure ideas and find novel assocaiations (Cyikszentmihalyi, 1996). When we’re constantly responding to emails, deadlines, or Slack notifications, there’s no room for that restructuring.

Towards a Balanced Design Ethos

If we want to deign to just with speed but with depth, we need a philosophical shift in how we understand our time. Instead of viewing reflective or idle moments as inefficiencies, they can be reframes as integral parts of the creative process.

This isn’t a romantization of laziness. It’s an invitation to reclaim cognitive space. Just as we respect physical ergonomics in design work, we should start advocating for mental ergonomics: structured time for wandering thought, non-goal-oriented exploration, and emotional detachment from constant outcomes.

Imagine a design team where unstructured time is built into the sprint cycle, or where “creative sabbaticals” of even just an afternoon are embedded into deadlines. These aren’t indulgences. They could be an essential practice grounded in cognitive science and supported by a growing body of research. And just like bodybuilders who schedule rests to gain optimal results it is time for creatives to do the same and to recognize the importance of mental offloading.

References:
Deloitte. (2015). Burnout survey: 77% of employees have experienced burnout at their current job. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/

Sowden, P. T., Pringle, A., & Gabora, L. (2015). The shifting sands of creative thinking: Connections to dual-process theory. Thinking & Reasoning, 21(1), 40–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2014.885464

Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W. Y., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1117–1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612446024

In my last post, I unveiled the blueprint for my smart retail system—the three core pillars of the AR Application, the Cloud Platform, and the In-Store IoT Network. Today, I’m putting that blueprint into motion. I’ll follow my case study shopper, Alex, through the IKEA store and analyze the precise sequence of data “handshakes” that make his journey possible. Additionally this blog post is super technical due to my personal interest and it’s help to be able to further develop the technology

While this experience is designed to be accessible on any modern smartphone, it is primarily envisioned for the next generation of consumer Smart AR Glasses. The goal is a truly heads-up, hands-free experience where digital information is seamlessly woven into the user’s field of view.

Let’s dive into the technical specifics that happen on Alex’s chosen AR device.

1. The Task: High-Precision In-Store Navigation

The Scenario: Alex arrives at the store, puts on his smart glasses, and wants to find the “BILLY bookshelf.” He needs a clear, stable AR path to appear in front of him.

The Data Flow: The immediate challenge is knowing Alex’s precise location, as GPS is notoriously unreliable indoors. To solve this, I’ve designed a hybrid indoor positioning system:

• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons: These are placed throughout the store. The AR device detects the signal strength (RSSI) from multiple beacons to triangulate a coarse position—getting Alex into the correct aisle.
• Visual Positioning System (VPS): This provides the critical high-precision lock. A pre-built 3D “feature map” of the store is hosted on my cloud platform. The software on the AR device matches what its camera sees in real-time against this map. By recognizing unique features—the corner of a shelf, a specific sign—it can determine its position and orientation with centimeter-level accuracy.

Here’s how they work together:

1. The AR device uses BLE Beacons to get a general location.
2. This coarse location is used to efficiently load the relevant section of the VPS feature map from the cloud.
3. The device’s computer vision module then gets a high-precision coordinate from the VPS.
4. Now, the application makes its API call: a GET request to /api/v1/products/find. The request payloadincludes the high-precision VPS data, like {"productName": "BILLY", "location": {"x": 22.4, "y": 45.1, "orientation": {...}}}.
5. Backend calculates a route and returns a JSON response with the path coordinates.
6. The application parses this response and, using the continuous stream of data from the VPS, anchors the AR navigation path firmly onto the real-world floor, making it appear as a stable hologram in Alex’s field of view.

2. The Task: Real-Time Inventory Check

The Scenario: Alex arrives at the BILLY bookshelf. A subtle icon hovers over the shelf in his vision, indicating he can get more information.

The Data Flow:

1. The IoT Push: A smart shelf maintains a persistent connection to my cloud’s MQTT broker. When stock changes, it publishes a data packet to an MQTT topic with a payload like {"stock": 2}.
2. The App Pull: When Alex’s device confirms he is looking at the shelf (via VPS and object recognition), the app makes a GET request to /api/v1/inventory/shelf_B3.
3. My Cloud backend retrieves the latest stock value from its Redis cache.
4. The app receives the JSON response and displays “2 In Stock” as a clean, non-intrusive overlay in Alex’s glasses.

3. The Task: AR Product Visualization in Alex’s Room

The Scenario: Alex sees a POÄNG armchair he likes. With a simple gesture or voice command, he wants to see if it will fit in his living room at home.

The Data Flow:

1. Alex looks at the armchair’s tag. The device recognizes the product ID and calls the GET /api/v1/products/poang_armchair endpoint.
2. My Cloud Platform responds with metadata, including a URL to its 3D model hosted on a CDN (Content Delivery Network).
3. The AR device asynchronously downloads the 3D model (.glb or .usdz format) and loads Alex’s saved 3D room scan.
4. Using the device’s specialized hardware, the application renders the 3D armchair model as a stable, full-scale hologram in his physical space, allowing him to walk around it as if it were really there.

This intricate dance of data is what enables a truly seamless and futuristic retail experience.

In my next post, I will finally move from the backend blueprint to the user-facing design. I’ll explore the prototyping and UI/UX Design and the design process for the interface that Alex would see and interact with through his AR device.

An immediate big issue that presents itself when thinking about how boredom affects creativity is: “how do we measure creativity??”. After some research I can present you some approaches that seem sensible.

1. Divergent Thinking Tests

The most widely used creativity assessments are divergent thinking tasks.
Divergent thinking tasks are designed to push your brain beyond the obvious, encouraging you to come up with as many different ideas, uses, or solutions as possible. They’re the opposite of convergent thinking, which focuses on finding a single correct answer.

Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT)
In TTCT, participants might be asked to list uses for an ordinary object (fluency), switch categories (flexibility), come up with unusual ideas (originality), and flesh out details (elaboration). These scores have been shown to predict creative achievements decades later, with reliability ratings between .87 – .97 across diverse cultures.
Guildford’s Alternate Uses Task (AUT) is a classic measure which covers all these scores. Simply: given an everyday object, how many different uses can users think of? This one test scores on fluency, originality, flexibility and elaboration.

2. Convergent Thinking Tests

Creativity isn’t only about generating many ideas. It’s also about finding the right idea.
The Remote Associates Test (RAT) measures convergent thinking by asking participants to find a single word linking three unrelated cues (e.g. “Room-Blood-Salt” -> “Bath”). This captures associative and insight-based creativity.

3. Semantic-Distance & Novel AI Measures

Modern testing like the Divergent Association Task (DAT) and its AI-enhanced variant, S-DAT, ask for unrelated words or ideas and measure their semantic distance via algorithms. These tools offer scalability and objective measuring beyond manual scoring.

4. Process & Product Based Assessments

The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) involves expert judges evaluating creative products (stories, designs, etc.). Similarly domain specific tools like the Engineering Creativity Assessment Tool (ECAT) assess fluency, originality, flexibility, and technical depth in engineering contexts.

Useful Sources:
What do educators need to know about the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: A comprehensive review
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
The Convergent Validity of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and Creativity Interest Inventories
What We Measure Matters

How Long to Be Bored? Timing & Incubation

Once we can measure creativity, we face more nuanced questions about practical timing:

• How long should boredom last for optimal creative priming?
  Most lab studies (like Mann & Cadman from the previous blog post) used 15 minutes of boredom inducing tasks and find improved divergent output afterwards. Would shorter or longer periods produce stronger gains? We don’t know yet. It seems to be yet untested in real-world creative scenarios.
  
• How long does the creativity boost last?
  I couldn’t find any good answers for this question. Controlled studies are still necessary to see how long ideation remains elevated after a boredom bout.
  
• How frequently should boredom pauses occur in heavy ideation sessions?
  In the absence of precise guidelines, a plausible starting point is alternating focused ideation blocks (25-30min) with short boredom breaks (5-10min) where participants engage in minimal stimulation. A similar structure to a classic Pomodoro.

For the Reader

If you’re curious about how boredom might boost your creativity, here are a few small experiments that you can try at home:

1. Schedule a Boredom Break
   Set aside 10-15 minutes during your workday to deliberately do nothing stimulating.
   No phone, no music, no reading, just stare out of the window, take a walk without headphones, or sit with a pen and blank paper. Then try a creative task (like brainstorming ideas or sketching concepts) and note any difference in how your ideas flow.
   
2. Swap Scrollign fro Staring
   Next time you’re in a queue or on public transport and feel the urge to check your phone, resist it. Just be. Let your thoughts wander. You might be surprised what floats to the surface when you’re not trying to be entertained.
   
3. Keep a Post-Boredom Journal
   After intentionally boring moments, note down how you felt and whether any interesting thoughts or ideas came to you. Over time, this could become a valuable creativity tracker and personal insight tool.
   
4. Read something
   More specifically one of these:
   – The Upside of Downtime by Sandi Mann
   – Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi

In my last post, I introduced the concept of transforming the retail journey using Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things. To move from a concept to a reality, however, we need more than just a good idea. We need a blueprint.

Remember Alex, our first-time homeowner navigating the vast IKEA maze? His journey from feeling overwhelmed to confidently furnishing his space is powered by a seamless blend of technologies. But for that “magic” to work, a robust and well-thought-out system must operate behind the scenes. Before we design a single button or write a line of code, we first have to design the architecture.

Think of it like building a house. You wouldn’t start laying bricks without a detailed blueprint. Our system architecture is exactly that: a master plan that defines all the moving parts and how they communicate with each other.

For our smart retail experience, the system is built on three core pillars:

1. The AR Application (The Guide)

This is the component Alex interacts with directly on his smartphone/Smart Glasses. It’s his window into this enhanced version of the store. It’s not just an app; it’s his personal guide, interior designer, and shopping assistant all in one.

Key Responsibilities:

• Reading the QR code to understand the location and connect to correct server
• Rendering the AR navigation path that guides Alex through the store.
• Displaying interactive information cards for products.
• Capturing the 3D scan of Alex’s room and allowing him to virtually place furniture.

2. The Cloud Platform (The Central Brain)

If the app is the guide, the cloud is the all-knowing brain that directs it. This powerful backend system is where all the critical information is stored, processed, and managed in real-time. It’s the single source of truth that ensures the information Alex sees is always accurate and up-to-date.

Key Responsibilities:

• Storing the entire IKEA product catalog, including 3D models, dimensions, and prices.
• Managing the digital map of the store.
• Processing real-time inventory data and user account information (like Alex’s saved room scan).

3. The In-Store IoT Network (The Nervous System)

This is the network of smart devices embedded within the physical store. These devices act as the store’s nervous system, sensing the environment and sending crucial updates to the central brain. This is what connects the digital world of the app to the physical reality of the store.

Key Responsibilities:

• Using smart shelves or sensors to monitor stock levels for products like the BILLY bookshelf.
• Using beacons to help the app pinpoint Alex’s precise location for accurate navigation.
• Triggering location-based offers or suggestions.

How It All Connects

So, how do these three pillars work together? They are in constant communication, passing information back and forth to create the seamless experience Alex enjoys. This diagram shows a high-level view of our architecture:

As you can see, the AR Application on Alex’s device is constantly talking to the Cloud Platform, requesting data like product locations and sending data like user requests. Simultaneously, the In-Store IoT Network is feeding live data to the Cloud, ensuring the entire system is synchronized with the real world.

With this blueprint in place, It creates a clear path forward for development.